http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-second-yellow-roadway-sellout-teamsters-union-agrees-to-a-second-pay-cut-for-35000-freight-workers-on-top-of-the-10-pay-cut-and-5-year-wage-freeze-imposed-in-january/from the KANSAS CITY STAR:
Posted on Thu, Jul. 09, 2009
YRC, Teamsters reach tentative pact on concessions
By RANDOLPH HEASTER
The Kansas City Star
Once again, drivers and dock workers at YRC Worldwide Inc. will be asked to accept cuts in their national contract to help keep the struggling trucker on the road.
Overland Park-based YRC and the Teamsters union announced a tentative agreement Thursday on further concessions, although details won’t be released until next week.
However, speculation among some Teamsters is that YRC is seeking a temporary suspension of making monthly payments into the union’s pension funds. Depending on the length of suspension, which some analysts think will be 14 months or longer, the concession could save YRC more than $500 million.
YRC’s stock rallied on Thursday’s development, climbing 67 percent and closing at $1.49 a share. That was a day after an analyst report speculating on a YRC bankruptcy sent the stock plummeting 28 percent.
The Teamsters union, which represents 35,000 hourly YRC drivers and dock workers, said details of the tentative pact would be made available to its members after a briefing to local union leaders next week.
If approved by the workers, the concessions would be the second time this year that the union has agreed to take cuts in an effort to preserve cash for the company. In January, the work force agreed to a 10 percent wage cut in exchange for a possible ownership stake.
Union President Jim Hoffa said in a statement that the tentative agreement “requires shared sacrifice while preserving good jobs and benefits for 35,000 YRCW workers and their families and tens of thousands of Teamster retirees.”
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